This invention relates to a telephone system for providing multiple telephone lines in a residence, a small office or similar environment and it relates to a telephone adapter for coupling a telephone to a telephone line.
In a typical residence, a single telephone line is distributed around a home with multiple telephone jacks in different rooms, so that one or more telephones can be connected to the telephone line. The telephone line is hard-wired to a line entering the premises. If further telephone lines are desired, these are also hard-wired at the point of entry to the premises and distributed to various wall connection points or jacks around the house or building.
Cable operators have identified an opportunity to provide telephones to the home over a co-axial or hybrid fiber cable. Such cables are relatively broad-band and can deliver more than one telephone line to the home. It remains necessary, however, to hard-wire each telephone line from the point of entry to the various outlets in the home or premises. This need to hard-wire additional lines is a disincentive for customers to subscribe to additional services. The addition of new lines to a home or other premises could involve expensive feeding of cables, installation of jacks and even redecorating after installation. In a small office environment there is further disincentive of disruption caused by these works. Alternatively, inconvenient, unsightly and hazardous wires are laid out across carpets and along walls in an unsatisfactory manner.
Radio solutions provide the ability to convey signals from a point of entry to a building to multiple point points throughout the building without the need for laying of additional cables, but radio solutions have drawbacks such as limited availability of radio spectrum, privacy and cross-talk issues, room-to-room penetration issues and expense.
There is a need for an improved manner of delivering telephone services to telephones or other telephony terminals in a residence, small office, building or similar environment.